Driving through mud slides and giant falling boulders

What a ride I had today!

It has been raining so there have been a lot of mud slides. I am talking entire streets wiped out and boulders BIGGER than the car in the middle of the road.

Yesterday I headed out to another city about 1.2 hours away. It was not raining so I was able to drive ok. I would zoom around the mountains when the roads were clear, then when I came to an area where it was still covered with rocks or dirt, I would drive VERY VERY VERY slowly.

Well, on the way back, just about exactly 1/2 way, it started to rain very heavily!!

Everyone was in a truck or SUV but me. When people approached an area with falling rocks they would zoom through so rocks would not fall on their vehicles.

At first I drove slowly but then realized that boulders the size of bowling balls were coming down the hill! So I had to make the decision: Do I drive slowly through the rubble to avoid scratching my car (or tire damage) while risking the chance of a giant rock crushing the car like a toy? Or do I zip through the fallen rocks possibly damaging the body of the car?

[FTD]

wow, you have all the fun and adventures in Colombia.

[gmboxster]

Well , What Happened ?

Originally Posted by gmboxster

Well , What Happened ?

I approached an area with big rocks all over the road. Most were about the size of a small bowling ball while others were as big as watermelons. I started to drive slowly trying to avoid running over them. It was hard to see with the pouring rain.

I noticed the car behind me had stopped to wait for me to pass through the slide zone. It seemed he was going to wait so he could drive quickly through it. I had noticed the cars in front went through very fast. I realized that these people probably had more experience with this than the dumb gringo.

I started looking up and could see more rocks of equal size falling. I figure some of the larger rocks would be at least 70 or 80 pounds. I figured a 70 pound rock falling from 200 feet up would probably go right though the convertible roof? I am not sure if Porsche has any data on this but I was not about to start speculating......so I floored it.

I ran over several large rocks and heard a lot of banging noises. I went through about 6 or 7 slide areas like this. There also were several areas where the road was damaged from the days before and not yet repaired. Colombia actually does a good job of repairing the roads but when it rains day after day there are situations like this.

Right now the car is still completely covered with mud so I do not know how much damage there is. I do not see any big damage. The steering alignment seems fine. I am expecting there to be a number of scratched on the front and maybe some physical damage under the bottom. When it stops raining (yep still raining!) I will wash it.

Some people were killed in the flooding so I am not going to whine about some scratches. There was also recently an earthquake in Bogota and a big tremor here in Medellin. However, they were probably caused by the gates of Hell slamming on Tirofijo.

Well, at least I am not bored.

[FTD]

Living in a drought situation, this is cool to read about. Well, except for the real suffering. What is Tirofijo?

A bad person who I am sure did not like Porsches.

Originally Posted by FTD

Living in a drought situation, this is cool to read about. Well, except for the real suffering. What is Tirofijo?